Review & Commentary On Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg

 "Axioms is Autarch's quarterly supplement for the Adventurer Conqueror King System. Each issue of Axioms offers a mix of short content updates for ACKS, such as new classes, new sub-mechanical systems, explorations of specific themes within the game, short adventure scenarios, and more.  "

"In this issue, Cohorts & Dynasties, we offer:

• New rules for dynasties, including birth, succession, blood rights, and more
• New mechanics for adventurer-scale battles with large formations of troops

"While designed for use with ACKS, the systems are compatible with any d20-based fantasy RPG. They add a new level of flavor to the fall and rise of heroes in every campaign"

Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg is one of the latest Axiom issue to come across my desk. And what it does is add in rules on Cohorts & Dynasties. These are incredibly important because they plug directly into the King end game of ACK's. And PC's are able to pass along thier own hard work & sweat with adventuring onto their heirs & breathern (lackeys) now in ACK's. Axioms Issue 19 clocks in at fourteen page with some easily read articles & solid ACK's content. We've got rules here for adventurer-scale battles with large formations of troops & why this is important.  Is because it puts the military power of ACK's within the PC's hands. 
Within the ACK's bounds this is incredibly important because of the fact that rulership is partially dependant upon military might. And in ACK's this equals push back power with larger troop formations. 

Militaries & armies are dependant upon monies & some of these monies are partially from taxes as well as dungeon delving troves. This all cycles around too dynastic rule which is now a more dynamic part of ACK's. Is  Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris a crucial issue?! Yes in a way because it presents a new & different dynamic to the ACK's rpg system. Get  Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties if you want to add in the idea of empire & dynastic rulership as a part of your Adventurer, Conqeuror, King rpg campaign. 
Axioms Issue 19: Cohorts & Dynasties By Frank Skeivoll Romsvig, & Alexander Macris For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg  Is Available Here! 

Review & Commentary On Axioms Compendium Volume 2: 9 - 16 From Autarch For Adventurer,Conqueror, King Rpg

Today has been a real roller coaster of a day as friends of mine have been messaging me, talking to me, etc about this 1.1 OGL business. And then Autarch today dropped the Axioms Compendium Volume 2: 9 - 16. What's so important about this Axiom Compendium; "Created with the support of hundreds of generous patrons, AXIOMS is a quarterly magazine  devoted to the Adventurer Conqueror King System. This exclusive compendium compiles the ninth through sixteenth issues of AXIOMS into an easy-to-use reference. It includes: 

• Issue #9 - All Creatures Great and Small
• Issue #10 - Macabre Monsters, Twisted Temples, and Grim Guardians
• Issue #11 - The Empyrean and the Chthonic.
• Issue #12 - The Art of Thievery.
• Issue #13 - Machinery to the Max.
• Issue #14 - Codex and Scroll.
• Issue #15 - Ancient Ways.
• Issue #16 - Wounds and Woe.

:Among the features within are “The Fetid Crypt of Anatu the Defiler”, an ACKS adventure; 9 new monsters, including faeries, nymphs, and nosferatu; 5 new character classes, including the dread priestesses of Nasga and the Nosferatu scion; 2 new playable races, the Nosferatu and Katripol; rules for creating custom fantasy races; rules for creating dwarven machines; and updates to the mechanics for hijinks, mortal wounds, and more.

While designed for use with ACKS, content in Axioms is compatible with any d20-based fantasy RPG built on the OGL. Axioms is made possible through the support of our patrons, who receive early access to the articles on a month-by-month basis. If you're already a patron, thanks for your support! To learn more, visit https://www.patreon.com/Autarch."

Not only does the Axioms Compendium Volume 2: 9 - 16 collect all of the pass issues of Axiom but it adds a ton of content to the Adventurer, Conqueror, King Rpg. And this includes updates for creating your own fantasy races, a ton of new monsters and more all done in a very tidy one hundred & sixty two pages. And for ACK's its much needed update of the material. The adventure “The Fetid Crypt of Anatu the Defiler” is a corker and very well done. Easily dragged & dropped into your own ACK's campaign. 

The forces of Law get a boast with the Dwarven technology & lore with the Machinery to the Max article. And we get a full on look at lore & research in 'Ancient Ways' while the ACK's thief get's his due in The Art of Thievery. If your an ACK's DM the the Axioms Compendium Volume 2: 9 - 16 is a must have!

And now is an excellent time to take too the deep end of Adventurer,Conqeuror, King! the Axioms Compendium Volume 2: 9 - 16 is available right over here! 

Review & Commentary On Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max by Alexander Macris, & Darren Wheeler For The Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg

 There are times when it's easy to see the forrest for the trees and today is one of em. It's been a few years since the spine on our Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg book has been cracked. Last night was one of those nights. Why?! Because of the fact that the veneer of ACK's has filtered down among so many of our campaigns over the years. Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Players Companion adds a whole other dimension to the rpg line. 

 One of those is the Dwarven Machinist class one of my players all time favorites. And this brings me to  Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max by Alexander Macris, & Darren Wheeler. Which expands the Dwarven Machinist class in very unexpected directions. Clocking in at nineteen pages. Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max brings the Dwarven Machinist into it's own. It presents a class that has the potential to be the mad scientist, inventor, and insane explorer all rolled into one. 

For post apcolapytic campaigns the Dwarven Machinist could be a horror or a blessing depending upon their alignment. And Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max takes this too it's logical conclusion. Devices, engineering, & ideas pepper Axioms Issue 13 giving the DM & his Dwarven players even more options. As Dwarven Machinists can save or damn a community as they want to. A guild of Dwarven machinists will be more then enough to take on any challenge presented to them. 

Sure there's device after artifact or automaton within Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max.  But it's the presentation of the Dwarven Machist class as a complete & viable PC type that will add weight & value to a party of adventurers. 
There's some damn fine work for ACK's within Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max and for an ACK's campaign focusing on Dwarven mechanisms & machineries this issue of Axoims is a must. 

Axioms Issue 13: Machinery to the Max by Alexander Macris, &  Darren Wheeler For Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg Is Available Here 

Pre Christmas Review & Commentary On Gregorius21778: 30 Items of the Dwarfs From Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778 For Your Old School Or OSR Campaigns

"What you have here is a collection of 30 OSR items made with “Dwarfs” in mind. All of them are LotFP compatible, but if one exchanges “sp” for “gp” and assigns different Saving Throws it should work well with any other OSR-clone, too.

Most weapons, armor and equipment here may be bought by PC (or assigned to NPC, or a loot stash) without any problems. A few entries are “fluff items” that the GM may introduce during a game session.  Nine “magic items” are included as well, often crafted by Dwarf enchanters I named “runesmiths”."

Gregorius21778: 30 Items of the Dwarfs  is a solid addition to a menu of Dwarven options. We've got food, magic items, & even some equipment. There's mystic items in there too. Even though this is a Lamentations of the Flame Princess product 30 Items of the Dwarfs could easily be used with Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons. 30 Items of the Dwarfs  would be exceedingly useful for either Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg or Castles & Crusades. 

30 Items of the Dwarfs  gives the dungeon master a tool kit to pepper items through out their Dwarven kingdoms & ruins.  One or two items could be the campaign target or focus to give the DM a hook to draw in the players easily. 
 Kai Pütz puts a bit of effort into his writing to draw in the reader with his take on the classic Dwarven tropes & tricks. And  Kai Pütz does  this for almost everyone of his items. Larry Elmore's Dwarven artwork feels like that Dwarven patron that employs your party. 

Gregorius21778: 30 Items of the Dwarfs   is highly recommended for anyone whose a fan of Dwarven PC's & NPC's magic, equipment, & magic items. These items are excellent for setting the scene of your dungeon, adventure, ruin, or kingdom. 

Walking Backwards In The OSR - Using OSR & Dungeons & Dragons Urban/Horror Fantasy Campaign Resources

So we got emails about  yesterday's blog post about Veterans of the Supernatural Wars rpg. And no this isn't the Shadowrun  rog nor is it White Wolf's rpg books or World of Darkness. We're talking a very different feel entirely here. Way back in The Dragon issue #57 there was a great article called  "  Modern monsters — 20th-century adventuring"  And its right from here that we dive in for an OSR fueled game possibly using either B/X Dungeons & Dragons or Swords & Wizardry. But there is a third option here. 

We'd jump right back into the modern OSR rpg's & in this case Adventurer,Conqueror,King, rpg for for most of my Dungeons & Dragons style  fantasy races. There are several reasons for this not including ACK's has a well developed & very well defined version of both Elves & Dwarves within it. These  classic races are some of the driving forces of the game. We'll get back to them in a moment. 

This isn't the only reason, the so called ACK's 'sink of evil' has many uses within an urban/fantasy or  horror game campaign  this is an option that's defined within the main ACK's rule book. Now moving back into the Adventurer,Conqueror, King rpg Companion there are lots of PC options that could come in hand to create an urban fantasy adventurer including dwarven delver, dwarven fury, dwarven machinist, elven courtier, elven enchanter, elven ranger, gnomish trickster, mystic, Nobiran wonderworker, paladin, priestess, shaman, Thrassian gladiator, venturer, warlock, witch, and more. All of these can easily be ported over to the Veterans rpg. 
For actually ready to go adventures & one shots then we turn to the hard drive & Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg lines. 

So the world of the supernatural laps up against the sides of our reality allowing the worlds of the occult to occasionally cross over. These places trap travellers  from other worlds within them. And here's where James Edward Raggi IV's  Tales of the Scarecrow comes in really handy; "Another twisted experiment in turning your game on its head: A house in the center of a cornfield contains horror, magic, and complications for any unwise enough to investigate. It's not so much an adventure as a hostage situation.

Perfect for Referees looking for something special when the random encounter roll indicates something should happen when traveling through (barely) civilized lands."

That's right the player's PC's wake up within the farmhouse & have no idea how they got there!? They can all speak the same language. And none of the black powder era details are changed within the adventure adding just that bit more strangeness of the Twilight Zone like atmosphere to the affair. 

If the PC's escape then their war on the supernatural is assured believe me when this adventure had been run in the past the players had a mad on for the occult. Another older & very nasty little adventure that the PC's could easily get emeshed into is Zzarchov Kowolski's Pale Lady; "Deep in the woods, every woods, there seems to be a monstrous child stealing witch.

Every spring more and more children go missing never to return.

Two years ago one returned from his absence and is telling tales of vast riches, monstrous servitors, and the way back to her accursed domain" This is a perfect mid tier adventure for a brush with the monsterous world of the Faerie.

Either of these two adventures could set the campaign plot in full force for a game campaign set out in the Mid West of the United States or even someplace close to one of the New England states easily. And now if you don't want your traditional Dungeons & Dragons fantasy races to come from another world?! We covered The 'Volume of Lexicon Geographicum Arcanum' by Andrew Marrington from Grimm Aramil Publishing.   on the blog here . 

Your Elves & Dwarves can now easily come from the 'Inner Earth' fully aware of the modern world & still able to deal with the world of 2020 or whatever era you'd like. 

OSR Campaign Commentary Notes On S3 'Expediation To The Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax, DA3 'City of the Gods' By Dave L Arneson & David J Ritchie, Set On Greyhawk

"The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird and terrible monsters of an unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, and it has been shunned accordingly -- save a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities. Within the last few months, however, a walled town not far distant from the area, and four small fortresses as well, have been destroyed by mysterious attacks!"


 Today was the sort of a day that takes me back to the beginning of the OSR, DM  Steve & I started talking about S3Expedition to the Barrier Peaks the  infamous 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game written by Gary Gygax. Its infamous because we've been talking about using the module in both Mystara, & Greyhawk. We've got experiences playing with it in both campaign settings. Now we've writing about using DA1 Temple of the Frog By David Ritchie & DA3 'City of the Gods' in Greyhawk using Adventurer,Conqeuror, King's Rpg rules to run this classic module. But S3 'Expediation to the Barrier Peaks' by Gary Gygax is a perfect fit in this in this science fantasy  adventure path. 

"New Magic?

That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.

There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.

Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods."


But let's talk about the real threat that happening to Greyhawk, 'Why are there spacecraft crashing into Oerth?'. Besides the fact that Gygax & Arnseson love a good science fantasy dungeon crawl. So let's say that Saint Stephen The Rock is already deeply entrenched within Greyhawk by the time Gary Gygax's S3 'Expedition To the Barrier Peaks' happens. 
Captain Bork Riesling or one of his cybernetically altered clones may have been aware of the impending alien threat due on Oerth. If we read through S3 then there's a real sense of doom that seems to hang over the star ship of classic module. While the shp featured in  S3 'Expedition To the Barrier Peaks' is not the 

'Warden' of Metamorphis Alpha rpg fame. This 'Warden' might be connected with an mission to recover the crew of the FSS Beagle. A science survey vessel that's deverted to recover the crew of the FSS Beagle . This isn't going to happen not only because the horror aboard the 'Warden' but because of Captain Riesling.

 Why?! Captain Riesling himself  & his command decisions for the FTS Beagle; 

"Captain Riesling has never been a man to go strictly by the book unless there was some

advantage in doing so. Had there been a pressing reason to break the regulation

against contact with non-starfaring alien cultures, he would have done so without a second thought. But, at the time,it seemed like a good idea to avoid the denizens of this planet

except for gathering a very few specimens who wouldn' t be missed. The place was unbelievably primitive and terribly dangerous, even to robots. So Riesling decided to refrain

from formal contact. Instead, the distress beacon was activated, most of the crew went

into stasis, and the robots were programmed to go into a standard routine designed to

make the locals shun the Beagle's landing place. " 
The about comes straight out DA3 'City of the Gods'. Its Captain Riesling's paranoia about "Stephen the Rock" & his Froggies that causes the downfall of the "city" later on. There's a lot of a similiarities between the two modules for use: 

1. Two crashed space craft introducing invasive species to a primitive culture in either 'Greyhawk' or Mystara. I'm leaning towards Greyhawk here. 
2. Long receaching consquences & enviromental effects of the appearance of these space craft. 
3. The modules offered the introduction of a number of classic D&D  or AD&D monsters into the classic cannon of the 'Grand Games'. 
4. The long reaching affects of these events on a Greyhawk campaign are well known.  And any use of the City of the Gods as an adventure location would be set well before 'The Rain of Colorless Fire'. Unless this is campaign is set within 'The City of the Gods' on modern Greyhawk ala Dungeon issue #115 Raiders of the Black Ice by Wolfgang Baur. That's a whole cloth other blog entry. 

Now talking with DM Steve he pointed me to the Great Libarary of Greyhawk site & their take on the 'City of the Gods' module;"Ages ago (certainly before the Twin Cataclysms), the City of the Gods was the heart of a technocracy in what is now Blackmoor. The lords and ladies of the City used a combination of elemental magic and clockwork science to create automatons to perform all menial labor for them. Meanwhile, they devoted their time to art, philosophy, and war.

The original technology and magic of the City of the Gods seems to have been Baklunish in origin, based on secrets given to humans by the efreet.

The end of the age came when the city's automatons were struck down by a plague called "gear madness," or when the city's humanoid inhabitants transformed themselves into constructs themselves. Over the centuries, most of what remained of their civilization was covered by the encroaching Black Ice.

The City of the Gods was originally a fiefdom of some other land. The accessory College of Wizardry suggests that at some point before the City of the Gods was swallowed by the Ice, Blackmoor was claimed by the Baklunish Empire. By the early days of the Baklunish-Suloise Wars, the region now called Blackmoor was independent of the Baklunish and considered an ally of the Suel Imperium. During this period, the Suel emperor sent the people of Blackmoor an artifact known as the Unquenchable Scepter as a gift.

Occasionally, gears and other relics of this lost civilization will turn up in antiquities markets in various modern cities. These are eagerly sought by clockwork mages, gnomes, and dwarves, as well as groups like the Society of the Serpent." 

So what other secrets are hiding out in the lands of black ice?! Whose been behind the whole cloth mental illness  of  Captain Riesling's paranoia? Well that leads to one entity & that entity is 'The Egg of Coot' or at least Havard's version of the Egg. 

Could the Egg be behind the crashing of the science survey ship 'the Warden' into Greyhawk & other classic settings?! You bet it could! There's this great little article 
"Then finally came Oerth Journal #6. In it is a short story by Robert Kuntz called "Tales from the Green Dragon, Robilar Remembers: Journey to the City of the Gods." After I read the exploits of Mordenkainen (Gary Gygax)and Robilar (Kuntz) in the City (DM'ed by Dave Arneson, no surprise) I was more the wiser. However, Mordy and Robilar only scratched the surface. Here is the TRUTH about the City of the Gods."


Both DM Steve & myself are fine with this because it forshadows possible events done by the great Larry Elmore artwork mock up cover that Harvard made and while this is set in Blackmoor it could easily take place in Greyhawk right before the Rain of Colorless Fire. That's Larry Elmore's son by the way on the cover. Larry was kind enough to point that out when I posted this piece of mock cover artwork on Facebook. 


Its from here on where I'd grab my copy of ACK's Domains of War & Colonial Troopers  by Night Owl Worshop.  The events between Stephen The Rock & Captain Riesling have been heating over possible over ten or twenty years. With their mysterious technologies aging isn't a problem for these two. 


The forces of Temple of the Frog & Captain Riesling meet on the battle field set up by the Egg while it waits from the shadows for the weakened 'victor'? Possibly but there's far more going on here. Let's get back to 'The Warden' science survey ship for a moment from S3'Expedition to the Barrier Peaks' By Gary Gygax. That's gonna be a prize that both Saint Stephen 'The Rock' & Captain Riesling are going to want. They've possibly got survey parties scouting out the ship but communication was lost because of the dangerous conditions & invasive alien monsters around the 'Warden'.  But the Egg is really the one that gonna want that technology badly. If only there was a class of PC's who might be able to give the players an edge? 
 Too bad there wasn't a group of Dwarves who might have an advantage in this? Oh wait there is. There's The dwarven dynamo PC class from 'ACKS and Crafts' From Harpoon Cannon Gaming which is a perfect addition to just this sort of a campaign. But we'll cover that coming book coming up soon. 


For the moment the 'Warden' science ship is in the middle of Greyhawk's Grand Duchy of Geoff pumping out monsters & horrors into the countryside. The PC's in such a campaign are going to have to navigate the royals of  Geoff, 'The Gods', and even more! More Greyhawk ACK's madness coming up! 

OSR Commenary- DA3 City of the Gods By Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie & ACK rpg Greyhawk

 "New Magic?

That's what the flying egg has. New magic unlike any ever encountered in Blackmoor. New magic of a type that could give the fledgling kingdom an important edge in the wars that are brewing on its borders.

There are only a few minor problems. Like the fact that the magician who piloted the metal egg to one of Blackmoor's sworn enemies, the monks of evil and eccentric Order of the Frog, are also interested in the magic represented by the egg. And, most important, the fact that the egg came from the distant and dangerous City of the Gods.

Set amist the blistered salt flats of the Valley or the Ancients, the City of the Gods is a strange and deadly metal metropolis whose powerful guardians do not welcome intruders. Yet it is to this place of deadly menace that Blackmoor's leaders now send a daring expedition? to bargain for aid in the coming wars? or to steal the magic of the gods."


There are times when starting to look into the past means that the future holds its own! Such is the case with DA3 City of The Gods by Guy J Ritchie &  David Lance Arneson. My big problem with the OSR is how fickle it is. City of the Gods is an old favorite module of mine & last night DM Steve pinned my ears back about it. My comments here go all of the way back to 2018 & my comments still stand;
"DA3 City of The Gods has been available as a pdf from Wizards of The Coast going all the way back to 2016. 'DA3: "City of the Gods" (1987), by Dave Arneson & David J. Ritchie, is the third of the four Blackmoor adventure. It was published in March 1987.' , this one the best science fantasy resources available to bridge gap Greyhawk & Blackmoor together."
The discussion came down like this in last night's post game, 'You've got all this f@#^ ing chaos roaming through your campaigns especially your Adventurer,Conqueror, King rpg campaign but none of the goodness or order?!'.  Never let it be said that there isn't consistency & coherence in my campaigns. Going back over my campaign notes I remember that there was a notes about using several knightly orders of the City of the Gods. What if those knights were actually Star Knights ala White Star's Galaxy edition or Between Star & Void by DYS Games. 



This puts this faction squarely in the time before the Twin Cataclysms We can see further evidence of this right in the Mechanics of Destruction: Origins of the Twin Cataclysms. There's a lot more to the land of black ice there there first appears in Greyhawk. 


All of this ties neatly back into Adventurer,Conqeuror, King's Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu so its easy to translate & transport the whole cloth of inhabitants of the City of the Gods as having ties to these OSR resources. Go here to read one of this blog's original City of the Gods entries with Greyhawk ties. 



Is the head of the Froggies looking for not only nests of machines but also a copy of  the Codex of the Infinite Planes?!  This is the same artifact that more then a few of the Jedi erm Star Knights have been looking for! 

And what of the Egg of Coot?! Has the egg suddenly vanished from its higher dimensional prison plane?! The egg was recently seen in my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign but its impact was only briefly felt. Was its attention diverted to something far more grand? The answer goes into Greyhawk's Land of Black Ice. 

"The only humans living near the area are the Baklunish Guryik folk on the Drawmidj coast, and the Suloise Zeai, or Sea Barbarians, who dwell on a section of Icy Sea coastline known as the Tusking Strand. Within the Land of Black Ice proper are said to dwell all manner of horrid arctic monsters, so few humans enter the region. Tales are told of wights, frost men, evil spirits, black-skinned trolls, and blue-furred bugbears inhabiting the wasteland" this ties directly into the fact that the Egg has been for centuries trying to escape its fate on Greyhawk. The 'Land of Black Ice' is a testament to its future but perhaps there's an escape through the city of the gods. 
All of this science fantasy  ties back into ACK's version of Dwimmermount. The grand megadungeon has some very definitive science fantasy  Greyhawk ties coming up. 

The Gerry Anderson OSR Campaign Options - More Campaign Workshop Thoughts Part Four - Deep Ones & Odd Fellows

 With some 'help' from DM Steve I've been delving into the depths of Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons Expert rules. At the moment there are two OSR campaigns going on, one involving Castles & Crusades. The second is within the planning stages at the moment using Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg. 

The real issue going through & over Mentzer Expert Dungeons & Dragons especially with other people such as DM Steve.  The fact that Expert seems to elect such a strong reaction from the players so I decided to scale back the 'White Star' part of this Gerry Anderson 'U.F.O.' & 'Space 1999' campaign . I began to concentrate a bit more on the Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg bit. 



Talking with DM Steve it became evident that many of the tools that I wanted to use for this campaign series were already within the rpg collection. Secrets of the Nether City has a whole cloth Roman style fantasy city build right into it. There's also the fact that the PC's have crossed into Cha'alt a few times. I was looking forward to using AX2: Secrets of the Nethercity from ACK's as a stand in for some of the locations of Cha'alt. The Mixed DM blog's Cha'alt review here had suggested this .  Many of the locations depicted in Cha'alt fit nicely the cities depicted in the campaign sections of Cha'alt.

We get all kinds of Adventurer,Conqueror,King style Conan/A Princess of Mars goodness mixed into the fantasy world of this campaign.  This is where ACK's 'The Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu' is playing a healthy part. 

The real issue isn't the Greys but the U.F.O. aliens who are actually far more of a threat.
This goes all the way back to something that DM Steve reminded me of. I want  take a step back here & talk about the fact that many of the Grey artifacts, relics, technologies, etc. are in my games considered Chaos tainted. Here's where I fall back to my Lion & Dragon, Dark Albion, & especially Cults of Chaos notes.  PC's fooling around with these items is a really good way of earning a chaos mutation or two. Now the reason for this is despite Pundit's review of Cha'alt there are some really good rules for using chaos or dangerous occult items or artifacts in your games. I turn to Gary Gygax's S3 Expediation to The Barrier Peaks module. I'm going to use the mind flayer that's one of the encounters within S3 as the basis for an 'unexpected guest'. There's a three sided war between the Greys, the Flayers, & the U.F.O. aliens. Is there a four species that the players are not aware of at this time?! Umm yes. 


There have been a few 'PC death''s over the years that have actually been abductions. The PC's are dead but their bodies have been taken over by the third alien outsiders. The poor victims  are refitted with cybernetic implants & then used as living vehicles by the alien energy beings. The outsider aliens  use human bodies as vehicles for interacting with the local space time continuum. The players were really pissed at me when this came to light recently. 

The Flayers are going to play a larger part coming up. But the PC's are already in over their head here. They may have to go back to see some very old enemies to get the low down on all of the parties involved here. 

This is going to mean a trip back to Cha'alt! But as we've seen  Venger Satanis's Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise. Eighteen months have passed & the black pryamid is on the move with the political forces of Cha'alt exploiting the demon worms & the alien natives! 

This is going to mean dealing with an old 'friend' of the player's PC's in order to learn the secrets of the sides of this war. The question is can they escape the 'old mother' once they do?! 

So yeah this isn't the first time that the PC's have had to deal with several of the groups here including the Aboloth who are within the ACK's rules. 

The Gerry Anderson OSR Campaign Options - More Campaign Workshop Thoughts Part III - When A 'White Star' shines

 

A big problem with the OSR is the noise factor, the 'buzz' for new products & books has become a bit of a scree in the ether. Take for example the fact that putting a Gerry Anderson inspired Pulp campaign has been very challenging. Taking a look back at Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons has been a bit of an eye opening experience. You can read part II here. 

Lately a player of mine has been asking me if the campaign will have 'real' warefare rules,  about 'space ship' construction, & so forth. It got me thinking about using more resources from Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg. This brings me to the cross over between Mentzer & Labyrinth Lord or more specifically the Goblinoid Games rpg Apes Victorious rpg.  There's a tremendous nostalgia between late Sixties & early Seventies Sci fi that driven by the 'Planet of the Apes' films. 

There has to be a meet point between the star spanning alternative Earth of U.F.O. & the Lovecraftian rest of this campaign. The problem with cosmicism ; "the literary philosophy developed and used by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft in his weird fiction.^[1][2] Lovecraft was a writer of philosophically intense horror stories that involve occult phenomena like astral possession and alien miscegenation, and the themes of his fiction over time contributed to the development of this philosophy.^[3]

The philosophy of cosmicism states "that there is no recognizable divine presence, such as a god, in the universe, and that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger scheme of intergalactic existence."^[4] The most prominent theme is humanity's fear of their insignificance in the face of an incomprehensibly large universe:^[5][6][7] a fear of the cosmic void" That void in ACK's world is the 'realms of chaos '

Is that getting players to open up & say,'ahh' for it is the incredibly difficult aspect of mixing gritty heroics & Lovecraftian bleakness. PC's should struggle to be heroic even in the fact of cosmic indifference. We get all kinds of Adventurer,Conqueror,King style Conan/A Princess of Mars goodness this is where ACK's 'The Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu' is playing a healthy part within this campaign. 

But what about 'the greater implied' universe of this campaign?! Hmm if only there was a Pulpy science fantasy alternative that could work with all of this & still retain the flavor of the whole affair?! 

The answer has been sitting on my hard drive since 2015, Between Star & Void From DYS Games is for The White Star rpg system now in the White Star Galaxy edition and its completely backwards compatible with all previously-written third-party White Star content.

But,but, its not Pulpy enough were the cries heard the other night. Fortunately Charles Thorin did me a solid by producing a whole bunch of Pulp inspired classes & whatnot through his Magic Pig Media imprint .  So we've got Space Amazons coming up! 

This contrasts really solidly with the darkness of a Carcosa/Cha'alt setting especially given the changes that we've seen in Venger Satanis's Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise. Eighteen months have passed & the black pryamid is on the move with the political forces of Cha'alt exploiting the demon worms & the alien  natives. 




The do gooders of such a campaign are in for more then a passing 'bitch slapping' by the forces of Cha'alt including the Great Old Ones. But I've got more thoughts on that coming up. 

Review & Commentary On AX6: Sepulcher of the Sorceress-Queen By Michael H. Stone, & Alexander Macris

 Over a thousand years ago, the Zaharan Sorcerer-Queen Semiramis reigned over a court notorious for its decadent arts and lavish opulence. The hidebound nobles of Zahar were troubled by the ascendance of the kingdom’s first female monarch. Semiramis was beset by over one hundred suitors, each one demanding that she marry him so that the kingdom might have a king. Many of these suitors were powerful spellcasters who wove enchantments upon her, but to no avail: The Sorceress-Queen wore the Ring of the Queen’s Heart, a legendary magic item gifted to her by the goddess Nasga that made her immune to her suitor’s charms.

As beautiful and cruel as her goddess, Semiramis instead seduced her perfidious suitors into swearing eternal love to her – then had them slain. The Sorceress-Queen mummified and interred all one hundred suitors in her own majestic sepulcher, where they would serve her as loyally in death as they ought to have in life.

Since then, the sepulcher of the sorceress-queen has lain hidden and undisturbed, its undead inhabitants slumbering in torpor until the prophesied time of the Awakening. But now a reckless warband of lizardmen has broken open the ancient tomb and disturbed evils not seen in centuries…

When it comes to anything ancient Egyptian themed I'm a huge sucker for OSR supplements, books,& especially adventures. So when it came to the Middle Kingdom inspired Adventurer,Conqueror,King rpg AX6: Sepulcher of the Sorceress-Queen (SoSQ) adventure I was all in. So much so that I stepped up & bought in on the Table Top Game On Funding Project. This is not a huge adventure & it clocks in at fifty six pages of OSR goodness but realize that this is a nasty little dungeon romp for PC's levels 7-9. 

This isn't the usual animal of an adventure when it comes to ACK's because the Zaharan Sorcerer-Queen Semiramis is a menace in every sense of the word here. If the dungeon isn't cleared & her reign of evil isn't stopped then things are going to get beyond ugly for the PC's here. Our witch queen is set up in this adventure to become a real thorn in the sides of the PC's if she's not put down. That's the whole cloth issue here 
This is a nasty dungeon as well with tricks,traps, & some really nasty monsters all crammed & jammed into fifty six pages of ACK's goodness. Sorcerer-Queen Semiramis could become a straight up villainess of epic proportions within her own right to the back drop of the PC's rule with their own ACK's campaign. 

AX6: Sepulcher of the Sorceress-Queen  does a good job setting up its own inter universe adventure logic & sticking with it. This adventure owes more to Robert E. Howard's Conan then it does real world history. But it does it in a slick & solid package that rises to the usual level of ACK's products. The cartography is well done, the layout is good, the plot of the dungeon is well thought out but its placement?! I've got some 'suggestions' on that. 

But where does one place AX6: Sepulcher of the Sorceress-Queen  in the campaign setting of ACK's?! Well there's the official explanation  which dives it right into the world setting of  the Auran Empire found within The Auran Empire Primer . And then there's my personal take on AX6: Sepulcher of the Sorceress-Queen . Take this adventure & throw it whole hog into Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu world setting. 



Not only is  AX6: Sepulcher of the Sorceress-Queen going to shine but its going to take  the Zaharan Sorcerer-Queen Semiramis into the threat level that the campaign deserves. Here we get to see the influence & darkness of the Zaharan Sorcerer lines of royals in spades! 
The adventure is solid but the NPC potential of  the Zaharan Sorcerer-Queen as a campaign villain is outstanding. She's got to be the potential to be a royal pain in the arse of any PC's for years to come. A very well done adventure & one I'm glad to add to the collection!